


World of Grays

by hunters_retreat



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Nathan gone bad, Past Nate/Eliot, Past Sophie/Nate, Team Reunion, Years apart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 16:31:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1435228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years ago, Eliot had given up on Nathan Ford.  The man's drinking was out of control and the game he played got darker and darker until Eliot had to walk away.  Now though, there just might be a chance; to take down the man who had started them all on their painful pasts and to get Nathan back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	World of Grays

  

He looked around at the group of thieves and mercenaries in front of him and couldn't believe that he was doing this. In all his experience he'd never have thought this was how it would all end up. Still, it felt a little like fate, if you believed in such things.

 Eliot Spencer had seen enough to believe.

 The grifter and the hacker and the thief he could handle. They weren't bad people really, they were just on the wrong side of the law. They didn't hurt people. They didn't want to. They just... stole. He liked Sophie's easy wit and laughter, Parker's slightly insane comments and rare but beautiful smiles, and the sarcastic honesty Hardison carried at the ready.

 Nate Ford, however, was a man who liked to win and he usually did. He was the planner. The mastermind that saw the bigger pieces. Eliot wouldn't be there now if it weren't for him. In more ways than one.

 "So, we gonna run?" Eliot asked softly, looking out from under his hair to the others. The first three were sitting on the couch in Hardison's apartment while Nate walked back and forth behind it. "Or we gonna get what we came for?"

 "I want my money." Parker said, like he'd expected anything else from her.

 "Porn." Hardison said with a shrug. "I was gonna send him a lot of porn but I like this a lot better."

 Sophie nodded, but he could tell she was straining to keep from looking back at Nate. Damn, the planner had really done a number on her. Not that he couldn't say the same of himself because Nate Ford, when he wanted to be, was as sweet as a long pull of cold tea on a hot summer's afternoon.

 When Nate met his eyes, there was a small nod of the head.

 Eliot smiled. "Alright. We need recon people. Move on it."

 The other three were out the door a minute later, leaving Eliot to face Nate alone.

 "You staying for revenge?" Nate asked softly.

 Eliot shook his head. "He turned me into a thief Nate, and that ain't me."

 Nate nodded as he stepped closer, a smirk on his face as he brought himself within a breath of him. "No, you aren't. You're an honest man Eliot. Hard, but honest. What makes you think you can keep us in line?"

 Eliot smiled. "I only have to keep you in line Nate. If I can keep you in line, the others will follow along."

 Nate's eyes were glued to his lips and Eliot wet them slowly. "And how do you plan on keeping me in line?"

 "By giving you what you've always wanted?"

 "Oh yeah?" Nate asked, his voice calm and cool but he could see the way his eyes widened slightly. "And what is that?"

 Eliot grabbed the back of his neck and sealed their lips together. He kissed Nate hard, punishing and promising. He licked into his mouth, tasting until he was no longer brandy-coated but tasted of himself. When he pulled back, Nate was breathing hard and Eliot let his forehead rest on the other man's. "You come clean... you do this thing for me... and all those wasted years are done Nate. I'll forgive it all, the drinking, the cheating, the god damn wife you ran from me with and then ran out on.   Make it up to me with this. I need you to make this work."

 "And you want this to work."

 It wasn't a question but Eliot wasn't sure what Nate was commenting on anymore, the job, or them, because it had been a long time since Eliot had given up on the other man. Nate had once had a good heart, been a patient lover and a good friend. He'd become something less over the years, his job turning him into the enemy he studied. When he'd been fired, he'd gone completely over and Eliot had walked away, trying to hold onto the good that he still had within him. Sure, he was a hitter, but he did it for the right side. Now... the world was graying a little and it was time to take a chance.

 If he could get Nate back in his life, get him sober and clean again, just maybe they could have something. And just maybe... the five of them could become something more.

 Nate, after all wasn't the only planner in the group. He wasn't the only one that saw in big pictures. Eliot, just happened to be the one to learn to read the world of grays.

**Author's Note:**

> Another story I found on my computer that I can't seem to locate on my livejournal. Written sometime in 2009.


End file.
